Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 13.djvu/9

 of its keeping so closely to the treatise which it answers, and never taking any general views of the subjects handled. The book having been published without the author's final directions, in consequence of his illness and death, the first edition was full of errors. It was well edited at Oxford in 1847. Crakanthorpe died at his living of Black Notley, and was buried in the chancel of the church there on 25 Nov. 1624. King James, to whom he was well known, said, somewhat unfeelingly, that he died for want of a bishopric. Several works written by him on the Romish controversy, in addition to his great work, the 'Defensio,' were published after his death.

[Wood's Athenæ Oxonienses, ed. Bliss, vol. i.; Crakanthorpe's Defensio Ecclesiæ Anglicæ, Oxford. 1847 ; M. Ant. de Dominis, Reditus ex Anglii Consilium Sui, Rome. 1622.] 

CRAKELT, WILLIAM (1741–1812), classical scholar, was born in 1741. From about 1762 until his death he held the curacy of Northfleet in Kent. He was also master of the Northfleet grammar school, and was presented in 1774 to the vicarage of Chalk in Kent. He died at Northfleet on 22 Aug. 1812, aged 71. Crakelt published various editions of Entick's Dictionaries, as follows: 1. ‘Entick's New Spelling Dictionary, a new ed., enlarged by W. C.,’ 1784, 12mo; other editions in 1787 obl. 12mo, 1791 8vo, 1795 12mo (with a grammar prefixed). 2. ‘Entick's New Latin-English Dictionary, augmented by W. C.,’ 1786, 12mo. 3. ‘Tyronis Thesaurus; or Entick's New Latin-English Dictionary; a new edition revised by W. C., 1796,’ 12mo; another ed. 1836, obl. 12mo. 4. ‘Entick's English-Latin Dictionary … to which is affixed a Latin-English Dictionary … revised and augmented by W. C.,’ 1824, 16mo. 5. ‘Entick's English-Latin Dictionary by W. C., 1825,’ 12mo. 6. ‘Entick's English-Latin Dictionary’ (with ‘an etymological paradigm’ annexed), 1827, 4to. He also published (1792, 8vo) a revised edition of Daniel Watson's English prose translation of ‘Horace,’ and translated (1768, 8vo) Mauduit's ‘New … Treatise of Spherical Trigonometry.’ Crakelt was intimate with Charles Dilly the bookseller, who left a legacy to his wife and to her daughter, Mrs. Eylard.

[Nichols's Lit. Anecd. iii. 191–2, viii. 438; Gent. Mag. 1812, vol. lxxxii. pt. ii. p. 298; Brit. Mus. Cat.] 

CRAMER, FRANZ or FRANÇOIS (1772–1848), violinist, the second son of Wilhelm Cramer [q. v.], was born at Schwetzingen, near Mannheim, in 1772. He joined his father in London when very young. As a child he was so delicate that he was not allowed to study, but, his health improving, he studied the violin with his father, by whom he was placed in the opera band without salary at the age of seventeen. In 1793 his name occurs as leader of the second violins at the Canterbury festival, and in the following year he was elected a member of the Royal Society of Musicians. On his father's death he succeeded to his post as leader of the Antient concerts, and it is related that George III used to give him the right tempi when Handel's compositions were performed. He also acted as leader at the Philharmonic concerts, most of the provincial festivals, and at the coronation of George IV, and on the foundation of the Royal Academy of Music was appointed one of the first professors. In 1834 he succeeded Christian Kramer as master of the king's band. Towards the end of his life Cramer sustained a severe shock in the death of his second son, François, who died of consumption just after taking his degree at Oxford. He never recovered from this blow, though he continued working almost until the last. He retired from the conductorship of the Antient concerts in 1844, and died at Westbourne Grove, Tuesday, 25 July 1848.

Cramer was a respectable performer, but no genius; he rarely attempted solos, and had no talent for composition. He was all through his life overshadowed by his celebrated elder brother, to whom he was much devoted. There is an engraved portrait of him by Gibbon, after Watts, and a lithograph by C. Motte, after Minasi, published in Paris.

[Pohl's Mozart und Haydn in London; Fétis's Biographies des Musiciens; Musical World, 5 Aug. 1848; Cazalet's Hist. of the Royal Academy of Music; Musical Recollections of the Last Century; Life of Moscheles.] 

CRAMER, JOHANN BAPTIST (1771–1858), pianist and composer, the eldest son of Wilhelm Cramer [q. v.], was born at Mannheim 24 Feb. 1771. He came with his mother to London in 1774, and when seven years old was placed under the care of a musician named Bensor, with whom he studied for three years. He then learned for a short time from Schroeter, and after a year's interval had lessons from Clementi, until the latter left England in 1781. In 1785 he studied theory with C. F. Abel, but otherwise he was entirely self-taught, and seems to have had no lessons after he was sixteen. But he was assiduous in the study of the works of Scarlatti, Haydn, and Mozart, and it is probable that his father, who was an admirable musician, supervised his education throughout. Although originally intended